Exclusive Finding Dory Interview with Kaitlin Olson

As moms, we long for ways to teach and inspire our children through our daily tasks. So when I recently interviewed, Kaitlin Olsen, the voice of Destiny in FINDING DORY and mother of two, I learned another characteristic to the word “family”.

FINDING DORY swims into theaters on June 17, and let me tell you… it’s a must see! (Read my Finding Dory review!) In FINDING DORY, Kaitlin Olsen is the voice of Destiny, a whale shark who is a little clumsy due to poor eyesight.

With 24 bloggers ready with questions, Kaitlin entered the room talking about cookies. Right then, I knew she was a girl after my own heart. The actress, also known for appearing in the hit television series It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, gave us her thoughts on taking the role of Destiny:

“I think Pixar movies are amazing, they really truly are my favorite,” shared Katilyn. “Wall-E, Toy Story all of them, they’re just amazing movies. They’re sweet. They have good messages. Honestly, when I found out about the project, before I even found out what kind of character it was going it be, instantly I was like yes, anything yes!” She says that because It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is not something she lets her children watch, she was really excited to finally do a kids movie that they could watch.” She went on to say, “I seriously feel so incredibly honored to be a part of this movie for that reason. It’s a quality project I believe in. All the Pixar movies now, they really relate to adults and children. I’m really focused on movies and shows that you want to sit down and watch with your family, because that’s just where I am in my life now too. I remember going to the movies with my family, it was kind of of a special thing for us. We didn’t go very often. It’s important to work on things where we can all kind of get excited and watch together. So I just feel just incredibly honored to be a part of it for that reason, I believe in Pixar’s model and I really love this movie and I think it’s going to be around for a while.”

We asked Kaitlin what her favorite characteristic of Destiny would be. Kaitlin response tugged at my heart, “I like that she can’t swim well and that she’s imperfect. There’s just something so great about that. All of these characters, there’s something imperfect about all of them, in that they still are making it happen and helping each other out.”

Kaitlin joked with us, admitting how she tries to avoid speaking whale whenever possible. When she was asked to keep speaking whale over and over during recording sessions, she admits, ” I just feel so dumb doing it. It’s embarrassing,” she laughs. But in my opinion, she does it well.

In FINDING DORY, you will see the special relationship between Dory and Destiny, that stems from their childhood. Kaitlin believes audiences will relate to the bond they share. She said, “Family is really what you make of it, and if you don’t have one, you can create one with good people around you, which is really amazing.” How powerful are those words? But her words got even better…

“The just keep swimming thing is a really wonderful. It’s a wonderful thing for everybody to keep in mind. You know, nobody has a perfect life, nobody is, is perfect, and that’s okay. I’m specifically dealing with that with one of my sons who’s just a perfectionist. He gets so so so upset, I mean even the Legos will fall apart and it really is the end of the world, and he feels personally like he is a terrible person. That’s like a theme of his whole life and I’ve been trying to tell him for a long time. Nobody is perfect. I promise and he does not believe me. He really thinks he’s supposed to be. So that’s a message in this movie that really resonates for me personally. It’s you don’t have to be perfect. There’s no such thing. ”

Finally, Kaitlin shared with us a tidbit on balancing work and being a Mom. She was someone I could relate to, putting her role as Mom before all others.

“My kids are one hundred percent my priority, so I don’t take things that will take me away from them too much,” she says. “I recently agreed to do this pilot called The Mick, it just got picked up on Fox, so I’ll be shooting that next year. Luckily we’re mid season, so it’s just going to be twelve episodes this coming first season. And I said I wanted to produce it so I could make sure that it was not only the vision that I wanted, but that I could also have a little bit of control over the schedule. I always want to be there for bedtime, there are times when I miss it. But, it’s rare that I go a day without seeing them. If I do, I’m there in the morning. I just do the best I can, like everybody is. Just like a lot of working moms out there. I have the luxury of being able to have them come to me after school and play in my trailer and I can’t always hang out with them, because I’m working, but at least they’re close and they feel like I’m not too far away.” Her children are incredibly blessed to have that.